March 18 will be the 34 year anniversary of the sentencing date of Ronald Eben and Michael Nitz. Admitting to the brutal killing of Vincent Chin, the father and step-son would never spend a day in jail. On June 23rd will be 35 years from the night these two would kill Vincent Chin.
The image below is from the 2012 reenactment of the Vincent Chin’s death from a UCLA production. reenactment photo by Charlie Wang/DailyBruin.com
Detroit, MI
On March 18, 34 years ago, a father and step-son were given 3 years probation and fined $3,780 for the killing of Vincent Chin. When the gavel was laid down on the block, the two men that committed a brutal killing of a Chinese American man at the prime of his life was now given the benefit of due process by the court of law.
The presiding judge decreed “These aren’t the kind of men you send to jail. You fit the punishment to the criminal, not the crime.”
That crime was the violent battering of the human skull in close proximity with a baseball bat held in the bare hands of Ronald Eben while the second assailant, his step-son Michael Nitz held down the victim. Witnesses accounts have stated that Ronald Eben was making multiple home-run-like, full swings at the head that would kill Vincent Chin. That crime would never be murder. Neither man spent a single day in jail. Vincent’s last word as he laid dying with a burst open skull and brain matter, blood and spinal fluid splattered all around the floor beside him was “it’s not fair.”
Chesapeake, VA
January 26, 2017 an armed security guard fires multiple times into a van killing Jiansheng Chen. Jiansheng Chen was sitting behind the wheel of a minivan in which an argument ensued after the unidentified security guard stepped out of his vehicle and approached the 60 year-old grandfather who spoke very little English. Afterward, Mr. Chen began motioning to leave the area in his minivan, the security guard is reported to have yelled “Stop” before open firing multiple times striking Chen once in the upper left arm and several time to the upper left chest, killing him.
“There was a history of problems between the company and Mr. Chen,” said the attorney representing the security company without offering details. “We are going to have a very strong, hard-hitting, very accurate, very credible and fully documented statement about what actually happened,” stressing the company’s desire to “set the record straight.” He also said a vehicle can be used as a weapon.
In the final report of the killing of Jiansheng Chen, the 60 year-old grandfather was playing Pokemon “GO” before he was shot and killed. Only after three weeks of heavy public pressure, the identity of the security guard, who was protected by the contracted security company, was released and the 21 year-old man charged with second degree murder. The security company’s contract was also nullified.
Los Angeles, CA
February 2, 2017 an 83-year-old Korean grandmother was attacked in Los Angeles by a woman who allegedly yelled “white power” before attacking her. The story was also reported by Los Angeles local news agencies, where the LAPD confirmed the attack occurred at 2:40 p.m., near Western Avenue and Third Street in Los Angeles. The assailant gave police her name as Patty Garcia but fingerprints later identified her as Alexis Duvall. Reports have surfaced that the case is not currently being investigated as a hate crime. The “white power” statement was not included in the official report that was initially filed but may be included after a thorough investigation into the incident.
The elderly woman is well known by the community and deemed the “neighborhood grandmother.” The grandmother suffered a one-inch gash to her forehead from her eyeglasses breaking and scrapes from the fall. Thankfully, she has been treated and discharged from the hospital.
Clinton, MO
February 22, 2017 Adam Purinton had been drinking hard and exclaimed racial slurs. When a bar regular told him to stop, the man yelled “get out of my country” before he started shooting. The alleged incident occurred in Austin’s Bar and Grill, a suburban Kansas City restaurant that was packed Wednesday night when he allegedly blasted off several rounds at 7:15 p.m. Some 80 miles away after they were able to negotiate with him over the phone early Thursday morning, Cops arrested the 51-year-old at a restaurant hours later in Clinton, Mo.
Purinton allegedly told a bartender at the second bar, in Missouri, that he had killed two men who he called “Middle Eastern.”
The incident left a South Asian immigrant aviation engineer working for the technology company Garmin, Srinu Kuchibhotla dead and his friend Alok Madasani, also South Asian, critically injured for being mistaken as “Middle Eastern.” A third person, Ian Grillot was also hospitalized for trying to stop Purington. The case is being reviewed as a possible hate crime.
In a 2009 online article by C. Chen on the murder of David Kao, the following statement express the sentiment of Asians in America and the violent crimes that are committed against them.
“The Asian American Legal and Defense Education allege, however, that Anti-Asian violence is widely underreported at both the individual and state level. The reasons are manifold: Asian American victims may not be comfortable with, or capable of reporting their experiences because of the lack of bilingual law enforcement personnel, mistrust of local police, fears of trouble over their immigration status, and a general lack of awareness around hate crimes and federal civil rights protections. Furthermore, despite the passage of legislation mandating the collection of federal hate crimes statistics, many states and localities have not made rigorous efforts to prosecute and collect data on anti-Asian violence.”
